Human Pollution Reaches Underground Cave Ecosystems, New Study Shows

New research published in PLoS ONE May 6 examined how water runoff from the surface impacted the communities of microbes in the Monte Conca cave system in Sicily. The answer? Quite a lot. Potentially human-introduced bacteria made up less than 4 percent of the microbial community during the dry season, but shot up to almost 90 percent during the wet season, after heavy rains. "Anthropogenic microbial contaminants originating from outside of the cave environment can replace endemic cave communities," the researchers concluded. Read more.....